June 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 5, 1776).

“A NEW SYSTEM OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE.”

Robert Aitken’s advertisement for “A NEW SYSTEM OF MILITARY DISCIPLINE, FOUNDED UPON PRINCIPLE,” filled half a column on the first page of the June 5, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette.  It featured an introduction to the work, an overview of the contents, and an address “To the PUBLIC.”  It was the newest military manual among the proliferation of such works published in the colonies, especially in Philadelphia, in 1775 and 1776.

In the introduction, Aitken, a printer and bookseller, announced the publication and sale of the book, giving the title and listing the author as “A GENERAL OFFICER.”  That matched the title page, though historians have identified Richard Lambart, the Earl of Cavan, as the author.  Aitken promoted some of the material aspects of the manual: “Printed with a new type, on a good paper, in one octavo volume.”  His advertisement reiterated the price printed on the title page: “Price in boards One Dollar, bound Ten Shillings.”

Many newspaper advertisements for books reproduced lengthy subtitles or a list of contents that appeared on the title page.  This manual, however, had a separate table of contents on the final page.  Aitken reformatted that table of contents into a paragraph about each chapter.  He aimed to demonstrate to prospective buyers the various subjects covered, perhaps hoping that seeing the topics associated with the “duty of the Corporal,” “the “Duty of the Serjeant,” and the “Duty and instructions of the Adjutant” would entice “young officers” with little practical experience.  In addition to those chapters, the manual included a chapter on dress, arms, and accoutrements and a chapter on the “exercise as it is to be performed by signal or word of command from the major or from any other officer.”

The address “To the PUBLIC” required a little more work on the part of the printer, though Aitken did not compose it by himself.  Instead, he went through the preface, selected key passages from the General Officer’s descriptions of the purpose of each chapter in the manual, and made minor revisions to string them together into a summary of what readers would encounter when they put the New System of Military Discipline to use.  Aitken did add a final paragraph that he apparently wrote as a final appeal to prospective customers: “This work is written upon a new plan, and is peculiarly adapted for the use of young officers, shewing the particular duties of each, and the most easy method of training their men in order to become expert soldiers.”

As the war continued, Aitken believed that a market existed for yet another military manual, though he did not consider that enough that merely announcing its publication would yield sales.  Instead, Aitken designed his advertisement to boost existing demand as colonizers prepared for an uncertain future.

Slavery Advertisements Published June 5, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Pennsylvania Gazette (June 5, 1776).

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Pennsylvania Gazette (June 5, 1776).

June 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 4, 1776).

“Impowering the Directors to remove the books and effects of the said company.”

Andrew Robeson had an urgent message for members of the Library Company of Philadelphia.  In an advertisement in the June 4, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, he informed them that a “General Meeting” held on May 30 lacked a quorum for undertaking the important business of “impowering the Directors to remove the books and effects of the said company” if circumstances warranted.  The directors apparently anticipated a possible attack on Philadelphia and occupation of the city by British forces.  If such an event did occur, they wanted to see to the safety of the Library Company’s books.  As Robeson explained in the call to the meeting that ran in the Pennsylvania Evening Post on May 28, the directors sought the advice of the members to “determine on the place where the [books and effects of the Library Company] shall be deposited in case any future event should render that measure necessary.”

Robeson, the secretary of the Library Company, lamented “the number of members met not being competent to the passing of a law” or a motion giving the directors the authority to make such decisions.  Instead, those present “agreed to adjourn until Thursday the sixth day of June … when the members are requested to attend either in person or by proxy, to the consider of the propriety” of the matter.  He hoped that a new round of advertisements and the increasing urgency of the situation would convince members to attend or arrange for others to cast votes on their behalf.  To improve the chances of achieving a quorum at the next meeting, Robeson also inserted the notice in the June 1 edition of thePennsylvania Ledger, the June 3 edition of Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet, and the June 5 editions of the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Pennsylvania Journal.  He did not run the notice in Henrich Millers Pennsylvanischer Staatsbote, but it did appear in every other newspaper printed in Philadelphia at the time.  Robeson hoped that such a proliferation of notices would bring the meeting to the attention of members and convince them to attend.  The directors exercised good foresight in making contingency plans.  The following year, British forces began an occupation of the city on September 26, 1777, and remained until the spring of 1778.

Slavery Advertisements Published June 4, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 4, 1776).

June 3

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Norwich Packet (June 3, 1776).

“Good Wool-Cards, by the dozen or single Pair, on very reasonable Terms.”

Readers who perused the June 3, 1776, edition of the Norwich Packet from the first page to the last page first encountered advertisements on the third page, starting with a notice from Ebenezer Loomis, “CARD-MAKER.”  That Loomis’s advertisement appeared first was likely an accident rather than a deliberate decision made by the compositor or an arrangement made by the advertiser when he submitted the copy to the printing office.  After all, Loomis’s notice did not have such a privileged place when it ran at the bottom of a column in the next issue of the Norwich Packet.  The compositor placed it where it would fit.

No matter where his advertisement appeared in the newspaper, Loomis wanted readers to take note of the product he made and the service he performed in support of the American cause.  Not every purveyor of goods and services used their occupation as a secondary headline to draw attention to their advertisements, but the “CARD-MAKER” did so and increased the visibility of his venture for readers who might not otherwise pause to read the paragraph that followed.  Those who wanted to know more learned that Loomis “carries on the Business of Card-Making, in all its Branches … in Norwich-Town” when they read the short paragraph below the headlines that gave his name and occupation.  Those “Wool-Cards” were small paddles with fine wire teeth used to separate and straighten the fibers, making wool easier to spin.  They were essential tools for producing textiles, an endeavor that gained in economic and political significance due to nonimportation agreements adopted during the imperial crisis and the disruptions caused by the Revolutionary War.  The eighth article of Continental Association, for instance, declared that “we will, in our several Stations, encourage Frugality, Economy, and Industry; and promote Agriculture, Arts, and the Manufactures of this Country, especially that of Wool.”  That meant more than raising sheep.  It also meant producing equipment, such as cards, spinning wheels, and looms, for processing wool and making textiles.  Loomis did his part in that effort, making and selling “good Wool-Cards, by the dozen or single Pair, on very reasonable Terms.”

Slavery Advertisements Published June 3, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Boston-Gazette (June 3, 1776).

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Connecticut Courant (June 3, 1776).

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Dunlap’s Pennsylvania Packet (June 3, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 3, 1776).

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New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (June 3, 1776).

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Norwich Packet (June 3, 1776).

Advertisements for Common Sense Published June 3, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Special Features

Historians consider Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, published anonymously on January 9, 1776, the most influential political pamphlet that circulated in the colonies during the era of the American Revolution.  Written in plain language accessible to readers of all backgrounds, the pamphlet made a bold case for declaring independence at a time that many colonizers still sought a redress their grievances by George III and Parliament.  Paine’s pamphlet played a vital role in swaying public opinion in favor of declaring independence.

Common Sense was an eighteenth-century bestseller, though Paine wildly overestimated how many copies were published, claiming 150,000 circulated in 1776, and historians later made even more dubious claims that American printing presses produced as many as 500,000 copies.  Contrary to those exaggerations, American printers most likely published between 35,000 and 50,000 copies in 1776.  Scholars have identified twenty-five American editions, more than twice as many as any other American book or pamphlet published in the eighteenth century.

Colonizers certainly discussed Paine’s pamphlet … and printers, booksellers, and others advertised it widely.  As a special feature, the Adverts 250 Project chronicles those advertisements, starting with newspaper notices for Robert Bell’s first edition published in Philadelphia and then subsequent advertisements for that and other editions published and sold throughout the colonies.

These advertisements for Common Sense appeared in American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Connecticut Courant (June 3, 1776).

June 2

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 1, 1776).

“This Gazette … though small, contains all the material Intelligence that came to Hand this Week.”

The June 1, 1776, edition of John Dixon and William Hunter’s Virginia Gazette looked different than previous issues and opened with an explanation from the printers.  That newspaper usually consisted of four pages of three columns each with a large masthead at the top of the first page.  In addition to the title, date, names of the printers, and issue number, the usual masthead declared that the newspaper contained “THE FRESHEST ADVICES, BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.”  Another line in the masthead proclaimed, “IN CIVITATE LIBERA LINGUAM MENTEMQUE LIBERAS ESSE DESERE” or “In a free state, there should be freedom of speech and thought.”  For a final layer, an advertisement for subscriptions, paid notices, and job printing ran across the bottom of the masthead.  An image depicting the arms of the monarch, similar to the one previously used by Alexander Purdie in the masthead of his Virginia Gazette, appeared in the center of Dixon and Hunter’s standard masthead.

The latest edition of their newspaper, however, consisted of four pages with two columns per page on a smaller sheet.  Rather than a masthead with five layers of text serving different purposes, a streamlined masthead gave the title on one line and the date, number, city, and names of the printers on the second line.  No image appeared in that masthead.  Subscribers could not help but notice that Dixon and Hunter’s Virginia Gazette had a new size and format.  Anticipating what kinds of reactions that might cause, the printers opened with a notice to readers: “THE Printers humbly hope that the present Scarcity of paper will sufficiently apologize for the Size of this Gazette.”  They tried to mollify their customers, asserting that the June 1 edition, “though small, contains all the material Intelligence that came to Hand this Week.”  They did not, however, make any sort of acknowledgment that some advertisements may have been omitted for lack of space.  “A considerable Supply of Paper is daily expected from NEW YORK and PHILADELPHIA,” the printers explained before ending with a promise.  “When it arrives, our Customers shall be served as formerly.”  It was not the first time during the Revolutionary War that colonizers in Virginia did not have access to as much news and advertising in the public prints as they had come to expect.  In January 1776, for instance, John Pinkney, the printer of another Virginia Gazette, ran an advertisement in Dixon and Hunter’s newspaper to explain that he missed an issue due to “a Disappointment in receiving Paper from the Northward.”  Dixon and Hunter faced the same challenge.  The following week they still did not have a new supply of paper, but they doubled the number of smaller pages to eight to serve their readers and their advertisers.

June 1

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Freeman’s Journal (June 1, 1776).

“RAN AWAY … a NEGRO MAN, named Seneca.”

Benjamin Dearborn published the first issue of the Freeman’s Journal or New-Hampshire Gazette on May 25, 1776.  In a note that followed his address to readers, he “requested that those who would have advertisements, &c. [including letters and poetry] inserted in this paper will send them” to the printing office in Portsmouth “before the Post arrives, (which is on Friday afternoon) as it’s proposed to publish the paper on Saturday mornings.”  Several advertisers heeded those instructions.  The following week the second issue of the Freeman’s Journal featured more than half a dozen advertisements, a good start for a printer seeking to establish multiple revenue streams for his new newspaper.

Samuel Hall of Portsmouth was among those advertisers.  He published a notice that described Seneca, a “NEGRO MAN” who liberated himself by running away from his enslaver, and offered a reward for his capture and return.  Such advertisements encouraged readers to engage in surveillance of Black men and women to determine whether they matched the descriptions that appeared in the public prints.  In this case, Hall included Seneca’s age and height, noting as well that he was “a stout thick sett fellow.”  Readers might also recognize him by the clothing that he wore and took with him, including “two coats, one red the other blue; one blue pea Jacket; … 2 pair leather breeches; 2 pair worsted, and 2 pair yarn stockings; [and] a mill’d cap turn’d up with fur.”  In addition, Seneca “talks good English.”  Hall intended for all those details in aid in identifying the fugitive from slavery.

Enslaved men and women liberated themselves by running away from their enslavers throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.  Advertisements describing Black men and women who emancipated themselves in this way began appearing in newspapers soon after the Boston News-Letter commenced publication in 1704.  Seneca likely knew of other enslaved people who escaped from slavery by fleeing from their enslavers.  He may have taken advantage of the disruptions caused by the Revolutionary War to increase his chances of evading detection.  At the same time Seneca made his decision, Dearborn set about a new venture made possible in part by the war, establishing a newspaper called the Freeman’s Journal.  The title made a political statement about liberty on the eve of the colonies declaring independence, yet in the second issue Dearborn joined every other American newspaper printer, Patriots and Tories, who generated revenues and played a role in perpetuating slavery by publishing advertisements about enslaved people.

Slavery Advertisements Published June 1, 1776

Carl Robert Keyes Slavery Adverts 250 Project

The Slavery Adverts 250 Project chronicles the role of newspaper advertising in perpetuating slavery in the era of the American Revolution. The project seeks to reveal the ubiquity of slavery in eighteenth-century life from New England to Georgia by republishing advertisements about enslaved people – for sale as individuals or in groups, wanted to purchase or for hire for short periods, runaways who liberated themselves, and those who were subsequently captured and confined in jails and workhouses – in daily digests on this site as well as in real time via the @SlaveAdverts250 Twitter feed, utilizing twenty-first-century media to stand in for the print media of the eighteenth century.

The project aims to provide modern audiences with a sense of just how often colonizers encountered these advertisements in their daily lives. Enslaved men, women, and children appeared in print somewhere in the colonies almost every single day. Those advertisements served as a constant backdrop for social, cultural, economic, and political life in colonial and revolutionary America. Colonizers who did not purport to own enslaved people were still confronted with slavery as well as invited to maintain the system by purchasing enslaved men, women, and children or assisting in the capture of so-called “runaways” who sought to free themselves from bondage. The frequency of these newspaper advertisements suggests just how embedded slavery was in colonial and revolutionary American culture in everyday interactions beyond the printed page.

These advertisements also testify to the experiences of enslaved men, women, and children, though readers must consider that those experiences have been remediated through descriptions offered by enslavers rather than enslaved people themselves. Often unnamed in the advertisements, enslaved men, women, and children were not invisible or unimportant in early America.

These advertisements appeared in revolutionary American newspapers 250 years ago today.

Freeman’s Journal (June 1, 1776).

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Providence Gazette (June 1, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 1, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 1, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 1, 1776).

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Virginia Gazette [Dixon and Hunter] (June 1, 1776).